One of the biggest issues with working for yourself is staying focused. Since you make your own schedule and work at your own pace, it is extremely easy to veer off course and before you know it, things aren’t getting accomplished.
Before I moved back close to my home town, I had no problem getting things done. All of my friends lived an hour away or more, so it was very easy to find time to accomplish things since there were no distractions during the day. I even found myself taking on more work than usual simply to occupy time.
Now that I am back in town and closer to everyone, I am finding that I have less free time to get work done. This is not a bad thing on the surface, as I love hanging out with everyone and catching up on time missed, since I was away for about five years total. But on the business end, it can be more difficult.
There are a few things, however, to help combat this that I have been doing. Here are just a few:
- Make a schedule, set goals and stick to them. Roughly planning out your entire day is a great start and something that most everyone should do. Plan for big events and know that you will be away from the office at those times. Tell yourself that you want to work X number of hours per day and actually do it!
- Work at night. If you are a night owl like myself, you will have no problem with this one. Things usually settle down at night and friends are either asleep or at work, so there is plenty of free time to concentrate on work.
- Turn the TV off! It’s almost impossible to get anything done with the TV on in the background, because odds are, you will find something interesting on and stop working all together. Using a DVR is a great way to record shows that you do want to watch and set them aside to watch during your designated leisure time.
- If you can’t find much time at night or are too tired, do a little work here and there during the day. Take a laptop or note pad with you and get some writing done here and there, check and reply to emails or make blog posts.
- Just say no! Sometimes, work is just more important and you will have to take a rain check on hanging out, going out to a movie or to dinner with friends, etc. It’s ok - your friends won’t hate you!
Like I said, these are just a few things to help keep you on track. Remember, at the end of the day, time equals money and success… so if you aren’t where you want to be or well on your way, perhaps you need to be more focused and invest some more time to get there 
